Mary Barra likely to be called back to Capitol Hill

1:49 PM, June 5, 2014

General Motors CEO Mary Barra speaks April 29, 2014, at the Michigan Women's Foundation Dinner in Detroit. Barra received the Women of Achievement and Courage Award. Barra is expected to be called again before a Congressional committee to discuss the findings of an internal investigation into defective ignition switches. / Steve Fecht for General Motors

Detroit Free Press Washington Staff

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WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators today began pouring over former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas’ 315-page report on the events that led to General Motors’ recall of 2.6 million cars and House and Senate officials said GM officials will be called back for more hearings on Capitol Hill.

In the House, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said he spoke to GM CEO Mary Barra this morning before she went before a town hall-style meeting in Detroit to discuss Valukas’ report with employees. He said it will take time to scrutinize the report but considered the intial findings “deeply disturbing, suggesting that communications and management failures ran deep” at GM.

GM has delivered more than 1 million pages of documents to the House investigators, who, like thier counterparts in the Senate, want to know why it took so long to order a recall with warning signs going back more than a decade that Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and similar vehicles had defective ingition switches.

Congressional investigators also want to know why regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) didn’t act sooner to force GM to order a recall. NHTSA Administrator David Friedman said in April that formal investigations were considered in 2007 and again in 2010 but that the evidence did not appear to warrant it.

Friedman -- whose agency has already levied a record $35-million fine against GM for not ordering the recall sooner -- has said NHTSA would have reacted differently if it had known, as at least some at GM did, of reports linking air bag nondeployment to the recalled vehicles. GM ordered the recall beginning in February.

NHTSA acknowledged receipt of the report today and said, after review, it would “take appropriate action regarding the investigation's findings ... as warranted.”

“The failure to identify red flags and conduct a recall sooner cost lives,” Upton said. “It has been more than a decade since we put tough new standards in place so automakers and regulators could quickly spot patterns and fix safety risks, yet this devastating design flaw slipped through the cracks.”

“It's unacceptable,” he added. “The conclusion of GM’s internal investigation marks an important milestone, but our investigation continues as many questions remain for both the company and NHTSA.” He said the committee could discuss whether tougher regulatory requirements are needed.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who chairs the oversight subcommittee, said staff would continue to interview “key officials” and schedule a hearing soon. In recent weeks, investigators have not only talked to Barra and others, but to engineer Ray DeGiorgio, whosigned off on a design change to the defective part in 2006 but, in a court deposition last year, said he was unaware of any change being made to the part.

“We must have a complete understanding to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again,” Murphy said.

In the Senate, consumer protection subcommittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., also said she will hold a follow-up hearing this summer. For the moment, however, she said she would “reserve judgment” on any of the report’s findings, though she said she expected the internal GM effort to be “comprehensive and thorough.”

She also said she would get a “full briefing” from Valukas.

“I won’t be letting GM leadership, or federal regulators, escape accountability for these tragedies,” she said. “That’s why I’ll be holding a follow-up hearing later this summer to address unanswered questions. The families of those affected deserve no less.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who has been a critic of GM throughout the recall -- proposing tougher rules for automakers and arguing that the company should ask drivers to park all the vehicles until they are repaired -- was unimpressed by the report.

“The GM public relations campaign is pitching this report as an independent review,” he said. “In truth, it seems like the best report money can buy. It absolves upper management, denies deliberate wrongdoing and dismisses corporate culpability.”

Today’s “public relations campaign continues to leave critical questions unanswered,” he added. “Most significantly, (Barra) could not answer why the defective ignition switch was changed but its (part) number was kept the same.”

He continued to call for law enforcement agencies to conduct an independent inquiry into GM’s conduct.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate panel, said he spoke to Barra this morning as well and said she was “very candid” about the systemic failures that led the defect to go undetected for so long. After looking over the report, he said, it seemed GM had an explanation for why it failed to “connect the dots” on the defect.

“Whether that is actually the case is now Congress’ responsibility to verify,” he said. “Our subcommittee’s goal has and will continue to be holding all those involved accountable, including GM and federal regulators, and ensuring these deadly mistakes are not repeated.”